Can I Extend My Extension?

Lisa Raynes

by Lisa Raynes

24/03/2021, in Design Hints and Tips | Main Blog

This video is from a concept design workshop of Victorian, semi-detached house in Davenport. I explain, using Lego, their options for extending their extension, and I talk through the practicalities of their options for their kitchen. This should give you a sense of what our online concept design workshops are like, along their feedback on their experience.

At the moment they already have an extension with an outhouse, and they are thinking of extending the extension further out. I explain that if we keep the extension’s old roof and then add a flat roof extension, we will have a problem as the sloped roof will discharge onto the flat roof. We will also have issues about height as we would have to drop the flat roof much further down. It would therefore be a false economy to try and keep the current roof structure, so they could either work within what they already have or replace the roof with a flat roof and extend. Responding to the client’s question about maintenance, I explain that nowadays, flat roofs are single ply, made of fibreglass or rubber, and they come with warrantees, usually of 25 years.

I explain that they need to have a maximum 6m perimeter triangle from their hob to their sink to their fridge. Their option of an elongated kitchen has a work triangle 8.9m, so they shouldn’t use this. Another option, of a peninsula kitchen, just provides this triangle, and per their suggestion, they could put their fridge freezer at the end of the peninsula, producing a really workable space, and allowing the fridge freezer’s old location to become a pantry.

Elizabeth described the workshop as “very informative and eye opening for all the different options that we could consider- things we hadn’t thought of as potential options. It made us consider the practicalities of how we use our space, such as the 6m triangle in the kitchen which kiboshed our original idea of a long-thin kitchen. But really helpful for us to consider those things. It’s not just how we use the space on paper, it’s how you use it in person.”
Elizabeth
Cleint
She added that the online process “works well really,” and is “as good as in the flesh, because we can see everything we need to: we can see you, we can see the drawings and you can equally take a look around our house through the online facility, so it works.”​
Elizabeth
Client